explanade
Give me a museum and I'll fill it. (Picasso) Give me a forum ...
- Joined
- May 10, 2008
- Messages
- 7,450
I just booked our first ever trip with RoadScholar, on the recommendation of a very, very fit 70 year old co-backpacker during a recent Grand Canyon backpack with the Sierra Club.
The trip we are doing, 21 days of hiking throughout New Zealand, is marked as 'Strenuous,' which our 70-year old acquaintance likened to a Level 3 with the Sierra Club. A '3' sounds relaxing after doing the Grand Canyon, which was marked as Level 4, so that along with the plusher accommodations and lectures on New Zealand's native flora and fauna has us quite excited.
In NZ now, just did the heli hike on the Fox Glacier yesterday.
Not really interested in hiking per se as going to places to take pictures. There are certainly a lot of such places. For instance, after the heli hike, I went to Lake Matheson where there is suppose to be a great view of Mt. Cook reflected over the lake.
But it was after 4 pm and there were clouds over the peaks so I hiked about 30 minutes and the first view point showed the clouds and the water wasn't smooth enough to allow any reflections anyways. Maybe took a dozen snaps in all.
Abel Tasman has all kinds of hikes but you can only enter by boat and there are specific times and points for getting on the return boat.
Yet I hiked about 8-9 miles, mostly along the coast line, around bays and lagoons.
Got a lot of pics there.
Also went out to Akaroa Harbor, which was formed by a volcano collapsing. There were narrow roads so I didn't have to hike much. But I wanted to try to reach the head of the harbour, where it met the sea. I was told the last stretch of road was all dirt so I'd need a 4wd car.
Still got some good pics.
But the South Island is really for hiking and all kinds of adventure sports, if you're willing to spend. Fortunately, the NZ dollar is only 65-70 cents on the USD.